Adolescent males use Anabolic Steroids (AS) to help improve their athletic performance or physical appearance. The use of AS poses serious health risks and is illegal unless prescribed by a physician. Over the past several years the use of AS among adolescent males has become an issue of pressing concern. The proposed project will examine the feasibility of applying the Gateway Hypothesis to a specific class of drugs, i.e., performance enhancing substances (PES) to help identify factors that increase the likelihood of AS use Specifically the study will: 1) establish evidence for an association between the use of legal PES and the use of AS, 2) identify mechanisms responsible for the relationship, 3) gather psychometric data on instruments that can be used in a larger scale study and 4) identify factors critical for interventions targeting legal PES use. The Gateway Hypothesis describes a sequential progression of drug use from one class of drugs to the next. The classes of drugs are grouped into legal drugs, which are found earlier in the sequence, and illegal drugs, which are found later in the sequence. According to the Gateway Hypothesis use of lower stage drugs (i.e., legal drugs) is a risk factor for illicit drug use. Application of the Gateway framework to the use of AS predicts that the use of lower stage drugs will place adolescents at increased risk for using AS. One class of lower stage drugs that may be a risk factor for future AS use is the use of legal PES. Once an association between the use of legal PES and the use of AS is established it is important to identify mechanisms that can explain the association. Existing literature has suggested that perceived risks associated with AS use, the social norms surrounding AS use, the perceived effectiveness of AS, accessibility of AS and moral disengagement are related to AS use (Goldberg, et al., 1996a;MacKinnon et al., 2001;Lucidi, Grano, Leone, Lombardo &Pesce, 2004). Using legal PES may reduce risk perceptions, increase perceptions of social acceptability, increase beliefs about effectiveness of AS, increase accessibility of AS and increase moral disengagement. A second aim of the proposed study is to establish support for these mechanisms as mediators of the legal PES-AS relationship. The strongest empirical support for Gateway Hypothesis comes from longitudinal studies designed to establish temporal sequences of drug use. The proposed project will employ a cross-sectional design to test the feasibility of the Gateway Hypothesis to predict AS use. A third aim of the proposed project is to gather psychometric data on instruments that will be used in a future longitudinal study of Gateway and AS use. That using legal PES places adolescents at increased risk of AS use suggests that interventions targeting lower order substances might be useful in preventing the use of AS. A final aim of the proposed study is to identify the most relevant content and most influential sources of such information. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will test whether using legal performance enhancing substances (PES) places adolescents at increased risk for using Anabolic Steroids (AS) or whether using legal PES serves as a barrier to future AS use. Results of this study will be used to create intervention and education programs aimed at reducing the use of AS among adolescents.